Here is an example. of sales and influence. You have millions of people who cannot afford to buy a house. They just can't. No money. They should save and wait until they really can afford to even consider it. But the mortgage business says, yes you can. Don't worry about it. It will be fine and we will give you the money to get that dream home.
And guess what. People did. They saw their bank accounts and they could have done the math, but they wanted something and went with it. They were indeed lied to. But in addition to real estate people's pressure and influence, they convinced and influenced themselves as well. And many unfortunate people now have a terrible problem. I don't think that I am saying that people have an unlimited length of time to analyze their each and every decision. But I do think they balance a decision in some way like, "I can't afford a Rolex, so I won't get one." It takes less than a second to reason that, but in that statement it is shown that a person saw/heard an ad, thought about it and realized "not for me". Even if you tell people not to be influenced, you are trying to influence them. We're interactive and social beings and respond to emotional, mental, and physical triggers constantly. But should people perhaps consider their decisions more carefully? Yes. Could they benefit from being more self-aware, self-confident, and independent in their thinking? Yes. Isn't that what this type of work is ultimately about: to enable users to find their way through some sort of interface (consider faith/religion and life itself) to make an informed decision? Yes. From: Oleh Kovalchuke [mailto:tangospr...@gmail.com] Sent: Thursday, August 06, 2009 12:51 PM To: Jennifer R Vignone Cc: disc...@ixda.org Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] Are We The Puppet Masters? The Ethics of IxD. "I think people are influenced as much as they allow." The assumptions here are that people are rational and have an unlimited length of time to analyze their decisions. Trouble is that both assumptions are incorrect. We, people, are mostly unaware of our goals, attitudes, drives and the subtle ways those goals, attitudes and desires can be affected. It is physically impossible to be constantly aware of all motivations, which shape our decisions. For instance, I will not be swayed to buy Rolex, when I see ads for the watch. However the real goal of those commercials in mass distribution media is not to make people to buy them en mass (masses cannot afford Rolexes), but rather to inform the common folks that the owners of those goods are displaying higher fitness indicators; to affect our attitude towards the owners (and to let the owners know that the folks are informed what Rolex is)*. Can I resist this influence? Somewhat; but hardly, unless I understand the purpose of these ads. Is it ethical to influence uninformed people? We don't have a choice really -- people, including us, interaction designers, will always remain somewhat uninformed (it is physically impossible etc. - see above). Is it possible to avoid influencing? Not unless you relocate into a black hole -- that would make for a very lonely, if brief, life though. -- Oleh Kovalchuke Interaction Design is design of time http://www.tangospring.com/IxDtopicWhatIsInteractionDesign.htm * More information on various fitness indicators and the ways they influence us in "Spent" by Geoffrey Miller: http://tinyurl.com/luadnc On Mon, Jul 27, 2009 at 11:42 AM, Jennifer R Vignone <jennifer.r.vign...@jpmorgan.com<mailto:jennifer.r.vign...@jpmorgan.com>> wrote: "Influence" and "coerce" are different in that coerce has the notion of force associated with its meaning. Advertising may influence but I don't think it coerces. Would you fall into submission so easily to a commercial? What is "maximum persuasion"? I think people are influenced as much as they allow. "Persuade" implies using an argument or reasoning, hopefully backed by fact, which is not necessarily "influence" or "coercion". There are usability issues with how words are being switched which confounds this discussion. ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... disc...@ixda.org<mailto:disc...@ixda.org> Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help This email is confidential and subject to important disclaimers and conditions including on offers for the purchase or sale of securities, accuracy and completeness of information, viruses, confidentiality, legal privilege, and legal entity disclaimers, available at http://www.jpmorgan.com/pages/disclosures/email. ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... disc...@ixda.org<mailto:disc...@ixda.org> Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help This email is confidential and subject to important disclaimers and conditions including on offers for the purchase or sale of securities, accuracy and completeness of information, viruses, confidentiality, legal privilege, and legal entity disclaimers, available at http://www.jpmorgan.com/pages/disclosures/email. ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
